


We're All Mad Here

by justwriting (orphan_account)



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Alzheimer's Disease, Daddy Issues, Dementia, F/F, Implied/Referenced Incest, M/M, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health Issues, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-07
Updated: 2015-04-07
Packaged: 2018-03-21 16:56:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3700007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/justwriting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Raze's youth. Raven's degeneration and death. Then a reminder.<br/>(title quoted from Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland)</p>
            </blockquote>





	We're All Mad Here

**Author's Note:**

> Set loosely in the BOTA verse.
> 
> This is Old!Hank. Xavier is the (apparent) son of Xavier and Raven.
> 
> Headcanons: Persons with healing factors eventually die of old age. The physical traumas suffered over their lengthy lives take a heavy toll eventually, resulting in different disorders: dementia and Alzheimer's in particular.
> 
> Raze took his mother's place as governor of Madripoor after (and before) she died. Of a mercy kill.
> 
> Raven was actually a pretty good mother for Raze.

Yellow eyes examined the room through the window before it was carefully opened from the outside. Raze shifted into a snake-like shape, crawling silently in through the opening, and then very quietly closed it behind him. Satisfied with his work, he cocked a smirk at the window as if it was a good friend. His teeth slid over his bottom lip - he always bit his lip during a smirk. Childhood habit.

With a chuckle, he shoved his hands into his pockets and crept through the mansion of a house. Just as he mounted the staircase, a firm voice struck terror into his heart.

"Raze."

The shifter froze and winced, and his chin fell to his chest in defeat. That tone? That tone right there? That tone meant he was in deep shit. Figures she'd figure. Goddamn, but he was screwed. "Oh, hey Mom!" he grinned, spinning on his heal to face her and leaning against the banister. "Fancy meeting you here!"

Raven folded her arms over her chest and raised a brow at her son. She couldn't help it if a corner of her mouth twitched upward. "Mmh. Do you hang around this place often?" she returned the humor wryly.

He snorted and took on a deeper voice, his face wrinkling and his hair standing up in a specific shape. "Eh, jus' passin' through. I smelled beer. Bub. No, but seriously though, I do live here, remember?" he said, changing from his old man to himself with a roll of his eyes.

The house was silent for a moment, mother and child conversing through nothing more than eye contact. Raven tilted her head. "Well?"

Raze upturned his palms in a small shrug, essentially asking 'what?'

"How did you like it?"

He stared at her thoughtfully for a minute. Mom wasn't always trustworthy. A lot of the time. Raze wasn't totally in the dark about his siblings. He shrugged again. "It was cool."  
Mystique studied him as carefully as he studied her. She was proud of Raze. He was as clever and sly as she. Moreso, even. "Will you be acting imposter again?"

Well, that would position him as a potential threat, wouldn't it? "Maybe. I'll have to think about it."

"Mm. Do me a favor, dear?" she began. Raze braced himself for a tongue-lashing, a warning to back the hell off Mom's turf. "Let me know first so that I can take the day off and stay home. We'll have a massive riot if I'm in two different parts of Madripoor at one time."

He....wasn't totally sure she had just said what he'd heard, but after another brief silent eye-conversation, the youth realized that yeah, that's what she said. He grinned and bit his lips, hands out of his pockets, then back in. He shifted into an orange female with brown hair. "Did I do alright?"

Raven smiled at her daughter. "For your first time. I thought it was all very nicely handled. You're highly intelligent, Raze, and you have plenty of common sense and business sense. You will excel."

Her grin grew a little more, and she stepped off the stair and approached her mother, hugging her tightly. "Thanks, Mom." Raven's hold around her, and hand in her hair, was comforting. Raze pulled away just enough to look up at her. "I thought for sure you were going to say I couldn't do shit until I turned eighteen."

She snorted. "You're old enough to command a bar fight to silence in ten seconds. Why wait three years to exercise your skills? Now go to bed. It's not a holiday or a weekend."

 

"Yeh, yeh," Raze grumbled half-seriously, letting go and jogging up the stairs.

Raven watched her child with a smile. It saddened once the younger shifter was out of sight. She pulled a small, old photograph from a desk nearby.

"I wish you were here, Irene," she murmured softly, thumb caressing the glass of the frame. "You would be so proud of zher."

\------

Raze stood at Raven's side, whenever zhe wasn't pretending to be her. Zhe loved learning how to handle people, loved watching and noting deceptive skills. Politics, socialization, psychology, practical finances, negotiations...Raze soaked up everything zhir mother had any advice or experience on. Zhir fingers were in the dough, and zhe was working it gradually up too zhir elbows.  
There was only one problem in their relatively stable and awesome life. Zhe was getting increasingly worried about her.

Not long after the first time Raze filled her shoes, zhe noticed his Mom had weird spells. She gapped, essentially. She would get upstairs and wonder how she got there. Raven hid it pretty well for the first year, but Raze knew. Zhe could tell.

It was manageable. Zhe kept a close eye on her from the moment the aged lady woke up to the moment she fell asleep. Some nights, if she was restless, zhe stayed awake to make sure she didn't wander around. Raven had broken down and sobbed a couple times, but only when she thought zhe couldn't hear her. Raze gave her that dignity, didn't tell her that zhe had heard. It was manageable, it stayed indoors.

Raven had to figure, after a while, that Raze knew. When zhe began asking if Raven had eaten, did she drink water, did she have her keys, when did she plan on coming back home. But if she knew, she thought it better not to say anything. That worked for Raze.

One day it stopped being manageable. Raze was by Raven's side while she did some banking involving Swiss accounts and safety deposit boxes.

She thought the security guard was Uncle Creed.

Thankfully, they weren't on camera. Raze had no idea what he would've done if Madripoor realized its governess was falling apart mental brick by mental brick. He did still have to dispose of the guard, though.

From then on, Raven's kid was said to have gone abroad for private schooling, and Raven was much more active.

But in truth, Raven was confined to the house. Raze embodied her for the locals, kept on top of all the business and pleasure known to Madripoor. Raze made sure Raven ate breakfast, lunch, and supper. Every evening, zhe sat with zhir Mom and listened to her talk to the woman in the little frame, Ma Destiny. It was weird to listen to her talk about a woman Raze had never known. But he did listen.

One day, Raven was herself. She had really been deteriorating, and Raze had gone in at lunchtime with a pistol.

She understood. She died knowing who she was. And who zhe was. And that was all Raze wanted for her.

\------

"And if you're readin' my mind, you know exactly why. And if you have a problem with it, you have a problem with me. And if you don't, you're welcome."

Never once did Xave question it after that. Weird. Raze kindof took him for a softy initially. He - he tended to just go around in a male form nowadays when he wasn't in Raven's - found out pretty quickly that Xavier Jr was actually capable of cruelty that matched Uncle Creed's. It wasn't physical, though. He played mind games on people and got a sort of diabolical pleasure out of it. 

They were gone by then. Creed, Logan. Deadpool, even, was decaying. Even regenerators didn't last forever. They tended to go from Alzheimers and dementia. So much trauma over the years that one day their synapses would just snap, crackle and pop. Bye-bye, healing factor.

Daken was older, but nowhere near dead yet. Same with Laura. They kept in contact. They had a really good relationship, Daken, Laura and Raze.

Not Xave Jr, though. Xave didn't have time for that shit.

\-------

Xavier was in charge. That was easy to figure. And Raze was totally fine with that. He could play loyal citizen as easily as awesome governess. Plus, he really didn't want his half-brother poking around in his head. He probably already did. That's what he didn't like about psychics. You never knew when one went rummaging around up there. But Xavier was in charge.

Raze, at first, didn't give a shit about time and space. He did appreciate the decision to go after the X-men, though. Raven hadn't had the shiniest run-ins with those guys, and he figured that sooner or later someone in Madripoor would do something and the X-men would use that reason to come knocking on his door. Their priorities blended conveniently.

It started out pretty cool. There was a plan.

Then they found the Doc.

Raze knew immediately.

Xavier did, too, but that was only because Xave was actually in Hank's head. Raze knew because he had seen Uncle Creed and Raven both. He knew what it looked like for people to lose their marbles. He didn't even have to hear McCoy speak. He just knew. And it pissed him off that Xavier didn't put the guy's mind together completely. Maybe he couldn't.  
But at the least, the psychic could've bothered to make sure the Doc ate.

Maybe Xavier would've cared a bit more if he'd taken care of their mother for eight years.  
Then again, maybe he wouldn't have. Raze had a feeling that care and power didn't go hand in hand for his half-brother.


End file.
